


coffee filters

by fated_addiction



Category: Korean Drama, Seonam Girls High School Detectives, 선암여고 탐정단 | Seonam Girls High School Detectives
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 19:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3179648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fated_addiction/pseuds/fated_addiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>A bad decision is a bad decision</i>. Secretly, Chae Yool likes to navigate. Episode 5 coda.</p>
            </blockquote>





	coffee filters

**Author's Note:**

> If I had a notebook, I would write the name of this drama and draw all the hearts around it. Spoilers for the latest episode.

In retrospect, Chae Yool didn't really expect her brother to be a complete, lovestruck _moron_ and show up at school under some delusional fantasy that he and Mi Do would actually get some kind of dramatic first meeting. There is nothing rational about the look across his face as his arms tighten around Ye Hee, who looks like she's either going to puke or go eat dinner again, or the look that writes itself into Mi Do's face that actually makes her feel a little guilty and a little empty all the same.

But they're all girls, in the end, and she's sure, okay not that she can think of, but first loves and boyfriends and things that she never really lets herself because of her deep seeded _my family is the stuff of profound, eternal nightmares_ psychosis. She sees Mi Do because it's the only thing she can see. She doesn't move. She doesn't say anything. She just stands there and stares at Ye Hee and her brother. There's a quiver, on her mouth, and it's the slightest thing, the only thing that Chae Yool can put together in her head and say _that's not that crazy idiot_.

"Um, excuse me," Ha Jae breaks in. She stands from her seat by the computer and wrings her hands together. "I, uh -" she looks uncomfortable, or, well, constipated, "We were going to eat?"

Chae Yool sighs and Ha Jae makes a face. Chae Yool remembers Ha Ra Ohn and scowls to herself.

"Yeah," she chimes in because they all know Sung Yoon can't do it without being weird, Ye Hee is too busy being hugged to death by her brother, and, well, Mi Do seems to have taken a vow of silence. Chae Yool shakes her head and thinks _i don't have time for this_.

She moves forward and grabs a fistful of her brother's coat, yanking him back. He stumbles into her, glaring.

"Yah!"

She rolls her eyes. "You'll thank me later," she mutters.

It's the best she can do, she thinks.

 

 

 

A bad decision is a bad decision. Everything here is full of them too. So Chae Yool takes advantage of the awkward dinner -- _of course_ , they're back at the chicken place near school -- and half-listens to Ha Jae make awkward conversation while her brother attempts to recite poetry to Ye Hee.

She flips her place mat and rips it into thirds. Her brother laughs. She pauses but neither him nor the girls are paying attention to her.

"Let's see," she murmurs, and she likes making lists. Lists are strategic and comforting and probably why she'd make a fantastic serial killer, but that's for when her mother decides to send her to a therapist again.

_One_ , she writes, then pauses and thinks. Call it a suspect list. She groups the easiest names together: Ra Ohn's manager, his stepmother, and any of the gallery staff.

"She's too, too pretty!"

Chael Yool glares at her brother. Her lips curl into a half-snarl. "Seriously, oppa," she mutters. "Why you're the smart one in the family is beyond me."

He shrugs and reaches for Ye Hee, twirling his fingers through a lock of her hair. She looks green. She pushes her food away from her too which, in all the while that she's known her, Chae Yool has quickly learned that Ye Hee would rather eat than keep up any sort of lies. They just didn't prepare for it to blow up in their face this way. _Idiots_.

She starts the second spot on her list. Mi Do makes a sound next to her and her brother's back to making kissy faces.

"That girl," she murmurs, and scribbles it onto the paper next to a number two. She hasn't touched her food either. That weird girl that the other weirdos -- she sighs in memory, okay so it was terrible of her to frame them) -- startled the press junket. She thinks of Ra Ohn again and scowls _again_. No, no.

"What girl?"

Chae Yool blinks and Sung Yoon is in her face. She tries and shoves a piece of bread to her mouth, but Chae Yool ducks and scribbles another part to _the strange gallery_ girl.

"Ah," Sung Yoon says slowly. "The. Anti. Fan."

"You think so?" she asks, and then bites the end of the pen cap. 

Sung Yoon shrugs. Then puts the piece of bread back on her plate. None of them except her brother have touched their food. It's like a drama except her brother is a bigger moron than any of the cheesiest drama leads. She steals a glance at Mi Do again, who remains next to her and stabs a fork into her chicken, all the more depressing, since Mi Do likes chicken just as much as she likes her brother.

"She looked out of place," Sung Yoon murmurs, which surprises Chae Yool, "and we looked out of place, but she looked more out of place in a gallery like that."

"True," Chae Yool agrees.

Ha Jae inserts herself next. "She might have been part of the grand, elaborate master plan."

"I'm with you on the plan," Chae Yool says, and Ha Jae lights up -- credit is due where credit is due. "But," she says and the other girl's face falls, "she seems like a better distraction than the person that would go and shoot the gun."

She stands then. It's abrupt. Next to her, Mi Do blinks and looks up. Chae Yool's mouth opens and closes.

"I should go."

Mi Do grabs her hand. "No!" Then she pulls it back, surprising even herself. Ye Hee is watching them with an unreadable expression. "I won't ask you to stay," Mi Do says. 

Chae Yool's throat dries. Guilt is a strange, funny little thing, she thinks. She never really touches it and maybe here and there, she hopes for any member of her family to come face to face with it for a variety of reasons. But on Mi Do's face, the need is absolutely terrifying and too honest. It pulls at the pit of her stomach and she feels like everyone is watching them, waiting for her to say something inexplicably cruel.

But Chae Yool can't do it. She turns away awkwardly.

"I left something at school," she says. Then hates herself. "Want to come?"

The other girl never hesitates.

 

 

 

School is the other direction and she only has two items and an incomplete list. Chae Yool really hates when things are unfinished.

But the air outside is good, sharp, and winter's starting to sneak in. She reaches for the collar of her jacket it and tugs it up against her throat. The place mat piece is wrinkled in her pocket.

"You didn't plan for this, huh?" she asks because she's know how to _not_ ask. She knows how to change subjects, but something in her won't let her ask anything else. 

"Does anyone plan for love?" Mi Do walks next to her, but nothing in her thinks that the other girl actually means it. She keeps up and then cranes her head back, looking up at the sky. "You didn't really leave anything at school?"

Chae Yool shrugs. "If I occupy space with any member of my family for too long, I start to break out."

Mi Do snorts. "Dramatic."

"You should know," her eyes narrow, "and you _picked_ him."

Mi Do shrugs then too.

They stay quiet. Chae Yool pulls her phone out from her pocket but there is nothing. Good, she thinks. Her mother probably thinks she's with her brother. He's good for something.

She was not supposed to be here months ago, she thinks too. She tries and processes that, but can't even being to recognize any sort of rationality that goes with her mother and her future. Instead her mind wanders to the gallery and her teacher, the over-processed work of his nephew, and Ha Ra Ohn and his ridiculous request.

_you have to stay by my side_

"Ridiculous," she mutters.

"I know," Mi Do agrees and there is a long, dramatic sigh, "I _know_." Chae Yool rolls her eyes. "But we'll figure this out," she says, clenching her fist. " _Fighting_!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

Mi Do hits her arm. She narrows her eyes and the other girl retreats back, holding her hands up. 

"I'm not going to tell you about how much you love us. Or that you and I are actually very similar in that we can't let things go," she says, flashing a victory sign, and Chae Yool wishes for something that she could actually throw at Mi Do and not care that it breaks or that she needs it for surviving tomorrow. But the other girl is suddenly serious, actually serious, and shoves her hands into her jacket, rocking back on her heels.

For once, she looks like Chae Yool could trust her. She doesn't smile.

"Thank you," she says and looks away.

 

 

 

The list is rather simple, maybe too simple, but still a list nonetheless.

She ignores the first two because they are just that. The first two. She ignores her teacher's name and her mother (that's just spite, okay) because to consider the outrageous facts is to consider the facts anyway. She rubs her eyes. Those girls are going to make her lose her mind even more.

But first --

Ha Ra Ohn. (Finally.)

 

 

 

His studio is where she expects his studio to be.

She's waited until Thursday to see him because there is the issue of her mother, always her mother, looming over her head, the other girls, and well, you know, being in high school and trying not to kill each other for being in high school. Because they do that too. She knows his release has been all over the internet though, from if he's going to press charges to bizarre, speculative narratives about him being paralyzed for life to losing both his hands and never taking photographs again. Which, well, isn't that much of a loss.

He's in the middle of the city though. He lives in a building that's really an art collective; she greets a bunch of people on her way up, all who smile with narrowed eyes and say, "he's _there_." It amuses her because he's kind of an ass, okay now, he's a total ass and there's something to be said about public opinion.

"You're here," he greets, opening the door. He isn't surprise. His mouth twitches and he's holding a camera. "You're late too."

She shrugs. "I had errands to run."

"Errands," he says. "Sure."

He steps back to let her in. He pauses and rolls one of the cuffs of his sleeves, the camera strap dangling loosely from his wrist.

"Have you solved it yet?"

She faces him, her hands buried in her jacket pocket. She takes her time to look at him because her skin crawls and she doesn't get the same, unadulterated feeling she gets around her teacher. She thinks _he's gotten hurt_ and _this is a tantrum_ because there's nothing more to think outside of that. It might make her feel closer. She doesn't know yet.

"No," she answers, "I haven't." She studies him openly. He walks forward and has a limp. He pauses, his fingers curling around his thigh too. "I'm taking my time."

"Don't take too long."

Chae Yool blinks. "Or?" She holds up a hand. "Or wait, don't. I didn't come to listen to you talk about your uncle again."

He shrugs. His studio is bare. He's not too egocentric; there are photos here and there, strategically placed -- a woman's touch, she thinks. Or a mother's, she thinks too. And then she's amused. But there's a table, two chairs, and a working corner. The couch spreads out into the middle of the room, but there's no television and she finds it rather predictable that he has this image too.

Ra Ohn moves and sits at the table though. He puts his camera next to him and gently, studying her.

"So then," he says, "you're here for something else?"

"Nothing else," she answers. She smiles to herself, pleased. "Just seeing how you're doing after being shot, is all."

He scoffs. "It's not cute."

"Not trying _to be_ ," Chae Yool sings.

She notices more about him though. He's paper-thin, in a weirdly attractive way, and the circles under his eyes seem somewhat genuine. She finds herself thinking about his photos again. For someone special, she remembers.

Her smile fades. She moves to the table too and sits, watching him curiously. Her arms cross again.

"Why me?"

Ra Ohn doesn't smile. His eyes are darker. "That's not for today," he drawls and she wants to hit him. "Next?"

"You're not kicking me out?"

His face begins to change, slowly going from strange to handsome to almost cruel. His mouth twitches and then he's smiling, laughing softly like some self-imposed villain that's about to reveal everything. She imagines him like that, of course, stupid mustache and all. He reaches across the table and she freezes, wide-eyes as his fingers touch her wrist. His fingers skirt forward and she cannot find her voice. He pulls at her wrist and her arms uncross to her horror, letting him pull her wrist across the table to hold. It's too intimate, she thinks, and she feels almost naked sitting here like this with him.

"You should get used to me," he says and his voice is too low, "since you're to be at my side."

"There you go again." Her voice trembles. "Saying stupid things."

He drags his fingers into her palm. She doesn't move her hand. She should, she really should, but part of her isn't ready to lose. It's a game, it's a game, it's a game. She's on the point of trying to break the moment and ask him for something to drink. But she doesn't draw back and his hand stays as it is.

This won't be the first time she visits.

His fingers are warm. That's a first.

 

 

 

Mi Do meets her before the school block and looks sleepless.

"Here," Chae Yool says, shoving a film roll into the other girl's hand, saying nothing about how she got it. Mi Do looks at her suddenly, amused, but she keeps walking on, slowly, just not slow enough for the other girl to go and to say that they are walking together.

They stop at a crosswalk and Mi Do squints in the sun.

"Ah, so that's where you went," she says.


End file.
